Smile

Aria finally cut a tooth!!! So I seriously never had a baby wait so long to get a tooth. Landon and Kylie both got their first tooth when they were 6 months. Tannen was 8 months. Aria is now 10 months. She had been walking for a good month before she even got her first tooth. Silly girl. I started wondering if she got skipped over with teeth, and that maybe she would never end up with any teeth. I knew she would get a tooth, but if I am honest those thoughts did cross my brain. So yay for Aria and her first tooth - it cut through yesterday the 21st. I would love to get a picture of it but she barely lets us look in her mouth. I haven't even seen it, but just felt it with my finger checking up on her gums.

Thank You Letters

So I had the kids write thank you letters to their teachers last week for the end of the school year. Kylie wrote one that expressed lots of love and thank yous. Very much to her personality and then drew a picture of her and Mrs. Broadbent. Landon very much wanted to type his. I also had to explain to him in depth why he had to hand write his signature above his typed name, and not just type it when you have a typed letter. In school his teacher has been trying to teach them to be descriptive. So his letter included that as well. I love looking into his eight year old head. This is what he wrote - font and everything. It brings a smile to my face.

Dear Mrs. Wright,

Thank you for teaching me wonderful things. You have taught math nicely. Your brain has taught reading smoothly. You have taught science really good. You are a good teacher.

From Landon

Growing Up

Tannen has been taking off his diaper and peeing on the floor. It is driving me nuts, and I am not sure if I should try and potty train him or not. He still seems so little. But I have offered to let him sit on the toilet if he wants to and go potty. Well just today he peed on the floor twice, and he was about to take off his diaper and do it again when I offered him to sit on the toilet. He smiled the whole time but never went pee. So I put his diaper on and sent him on his way. He then started to take off his diaper again. I asked if he wanted to sit on the toilet and he nodded, so I put him on again. I don't think that he was relaxing enough so I asked him if he wanted to stand up and pee like Landon. He nodded his head, but nothing came out. So I grabbed Landon (he is home sick today) and told him to show Tannen how to pee standing up. So he did, and then magically Tannen peed in the toilet. So maybe I should reevaluate potty training Tannen. He obviously knows when he needs to pee, but maybe it is only fun right now and he will change his mind.

Aria keeps practicing walking, and she is getting better. I think it will take her at least a month for her to really figure it out. But she has been standing up all by herself. She has been able to do this for about two weeks, but now she is getting pretty good at it.

Yesterday everyone stayed home. Four of us had been throwing up, and no one felt good at all. I think we are starting to feel better. Marcus when to work today. But it was miserable yesterday. Marcus and I both felt really sick. It is hard to take care of your family when no one feels good. We watched a lot of Netflix, and the kids played on the Wii too. Our house is TRASHED!! Hopefully I can start to get it put back together. We are still waiting to close on our house. It is taking longer and hoped for, and I am pretty frustrated, but not a whole lot that I can do.

VACATION

Marcus, Aria and I went on vacation last week to visit Heather. I haven't seen her in almost two years because they move out to Pennsylvania so she could go to PA school. I got Marcus' parents to watch the three older kids so we could visit and play for a few days.

We flew out early Tuesday morning and got to Philadelphia around 4:00. I was also able to see Teresa who has been living out there for a few years while Glenn does dental school. We stopped over and had a Philly Cheese steak - and it was good. Then we got on the road to Heather's house. She lives in a really small town about two hours away.

On Wednesday we got up and Heather, Jaron, Marcus, Aria and I went to New York City!! I was very excited. We drove and parked in New Jersey, and took the Path train to New York. I loved it. I was initially pretty nervous to go. We got there around noon at ground zero. We walked around took a ferry out to Staten Island, shopped in Chinatown. Where I got a great little red bag that the lady tried to tell me it was a Versaca. Which didn't matter to me, because I must live in a hole and I didn't know what a Versaca bag was anyways. But it is really cute. I also got the kids NYC tee shirts. We rode the subway, got on the wrong side of the street, and started heading the wrong direction, went to Times Square in the evening and loved the lights and the energy of it. We ate at a local Italian restaurant, and headed back home. It was great because Heather's brother live in NYC and we could call him anytime we needed. We got in at midnight.

Thursday Marcus and Jaron went golfing and Heather and I hung out. That evening we went out to a Japanese Hibachi grill. It was SO AMAZING! I loved it. We brought Aria with us and the Japanese women were going crazy over her. They kept coming over to touch and hold her and would give her a bottle and rub her back. They would pick her up and have her wave and say bye bye mommy. We hung out that evening just chatting.

On Friday Jaron went to work and we were planning on going to Hershey PA, and amish country, but Ashton got sick and so we stayed home. Heathers kids played with Aria a lot and she started taking more than one step. I think one time she took about 5 steps. So now we have a little walker. I am sure it will take her a good month of practice to get it down. She turned 9 months while we were gone. But Kylie took her first steps and learned to walk when she was 9 months old too. It was really interesting be back east because babies must not be that common. Everyone stopped and commented on how cute Aria was. Even if people didn't stop and talk, they always looked and her and smiled as they walked by.

On Saturday we flew home. We were hoping to check out the Liberty Bell, but missed it because we didn't get out soon enough, and had a ton of traffic in Philly. Marcus and I got stuck in Denver for four hours, but we finally made it in SLC around midnight and spent the night at Hollie's where our kids were. We woke up today and drove the kids home. It was really great.


NYC lights in Times Square


Marcus, Aria, and Wendi at Times square


Jaron and Heather waiting for the subway


Marcus and Aria in the subway


Aria, Wendi, and Heather on the ferry to Staten Island. You can see NYC skyline really small


Statue of Liberty, we got to drive by on the ferry


Aria was such a little trouper. We brought a carrier all around NY and she took her naps in it too.


More NYC skyline


Ground Zero, where they are building the memorial.

Mascara in My pocket

So while you are getting ready in the morning, and almost all your make up and hair is done but your mascara - which is in your hand almost ready to apply - you of course get interupped by your 6 year old telling you that your two year old is in the paint. Crap!!! So you hurry and pick up your 8 month old off the bathroom floor so she doesn't crawl and get into something naughty while you are gone, and stash your mascara in your pocket. You find your two year old painting himself and the kitchen chair - which of course is fabric with the painting box that was left down on the kitchen counter by his dad. Who of course pulled it out to help build and paint your 8 year old's first pinewood derby car. Which looks totally awesome. So you carefully take the paint brush away from your two year old and carefully pick him up - because you are finally showered and dressed and you don't want to do that again today. Then you dump him in the tub - clothes and all and first try and wash his hands. Then you work on the shirt so you can take off the shirt and on to the pants and rinse them really good in the tub. Drain all the blue water and rinse the tub and fill it up. Then after he is totally striped down you enroll your 6 year old to watch him in the tub. Check on the baby who is crawling around and heading towards the bathroom with your 6 and 2 year old. Grab diaper wipes, because lets face it they wipe off way more then bums, and start to clean off the chair. But soon you figure out you better just stick the whole chair in the tub to get it clean. Then you proceed to look at the paint bottle that he got into and need to call poison control just to be safe because your two year old also has a blue tongue. Whew he is going to be fine. The two year old is done in the tub, so you must wrap him up and lotion and put cream all over his body because he has eczema all over him, and has really dry sensitive skin. So onto the second set of clothes. Which reminds you that you really need to do laundry because it is laundry day and you will soon run out of clothes the rate the day is started. You get him entertained, check on the baby and make sure the bathroom door is shut. Then you wheel the kitchen chair which is still blue into your bathroom to spray off in the shower. Once that is done, and amazingly enough the blue is gone, you rinse out the shower because it is now blue. You still haven't had breakfast, so you cook up oatmeal and slice an apple on top because you are trying to be good. The two year old insists on you sharing so you scoop up some and put it into his bowl. You eat. The baby is hungry and so you get her a bottle and sit at the computer to waste time, but enjoying watching the royal wedding, and dinking around because you needed a break. After a while you get up and notice a lump in your pocket and remember you still haven't put your mascara on. So you zip in to the kids bathroom and apply it. And hey since it has been sitting in your pocket for over an hour it applies and goes on really smoothly. You leave the kids' bathroom and unfortunately leave the door open. As you head over the the computer to write a witty post about your day, your two year old seems to move fast and your six year old is telling you that he has got the body wash all over his hands and is pouring it in the garbage. Thankfully he only got his hands, so you clean him up again, and send him on his way, with the door shut. You go write your post, (really to show what such a typical day looks like in our house and it is only 10:30) which took too much time, and you realize that you need to start the laundry.

Oh well my mascara looks great.

Easter 2011

Easter: The girls got dresses and new church shoes. The boys got swim trunks, Tannen got sandles, and Landon got a skate board.


Coming out to check out the loot. Tannen and Aria slept in


Hey look what I got





Treat hunting, with Kylie jumping


Kylie dancing in her new dress and shoes


Tannen putting treats in the bowl


More Treat hunting


Aria checking out her basket with the help of Kylie


Aria and her new shoes


My Grandma Woodbury, my mom (Grandma Vernae), Aria (isn't her dress so pretty), Me, And Kylie. My four Generation picture that I have been wanting for a while


The annual Cousin Easter Egg hunt begins


Landon in thought as to where the next egg will be hiding


"Oh look an egg on the swing"


Tannen Hunting with Mom


Gonna get it


Aria playing while the kids hunted - and she has the cutest new Easter shoes


Standing


Just the cutest thing ever!!

We had a great Easter this year. We started off on Saturday having the Easter bunny coming Friday night. The kids were very excited. They got up at 6:30 and glanced at their baskets, and really went right to work hunting down all the candy the Easter bunny hides throughout the house. Then we hurried and packed up and headed out to Pocatello. We got to relax and visit, and the kids got to soak up cousin playing. We did our annual Easter egg hunt with all the cousins. We provide a dozen eggs for each of the kids, and with everyone putting in there is always a lot of variety. They kids got toys, money, and of course candy.

We had an Easter dinner. The weather was so nice we got to eat out on the patio. My Grandma and Grandpa Woodbury were able to drive down and see us for a few hours. It was wonderful to see them. My grandma told Aria that she was the reason they came all the way down. They hadn't met her yet. Of course my Grandma held her - she loves the babies. Tannen hung all over my mom which was easier for me than keeping him out of everything. I don't know if my mom would agree. But she has said "It is hard not to love someone who loves you and wants you all the time." I love visiting with my family, and seeing my nieces, and nephews. They are what keeps the world moving too me.